A trackpad (or touchpad) is a pointing device for user input on a computing device. Trackpads incorporate a touch-sensitive surface (or a tactile sensor) that can translate position and motion of a user's fingers in contact with (or close proximity to) the touch-sensitive surface to a relative position and motion on a display, which is also connected to the computing device.
As computing devices shrink in physical size and weight and become more portable, trackpads associated with the computing devices also shrink in physical size and weight. However, user expectations demand that trackpad size and performance remain substantially the same or be improved.
As the thickness of a trackpad assembly is reduced, all else being equal, overall stiffness of the assembly is also reduced. Mechanisms to maintain minimum overall stiffness, weight, and cost requirements of a trackpad assembly, while permitting a decrease in trackpad assembly thickness permit increasingly thinner trackpad assemblies, and as a result, increasingly thinner computing devices.